Tom Pidcock undone by Matteo Jorgenson's race tactics again at the Giro dell'Emilia

Pidcock's results since the Tour de France have been impressively good. After finishing ninth in the Tour de France, he returned to mountain biking after a brief break and won a world title starting from the fifth row of the grid.

Once back on the road, Pidcock immediately won the GP Industria & Artigianato, before heading to Canada for two World Championship warm-up races. He finished fourth in the GP Québec and sixth in the GP Montréal.

At the World Championships, Pidcock was undoubtedly among the best riders of the day, but a seventh-place finish did not do justice to that performance. The British rider was trapped in a group in which Jorgenson (his compatriot) and Isaac del Toro (his teammate) were blocking for Brandon McNulty.

The American won the World Championship, despite several attempts by Pidcock to break away at the front. Just when the climber thought he could race comfortably again in the Pinarello-Q36.5 jersey, a strong block from Visma | Lease a Bike created a World Championship-style scenario in the Giro dell’Emilia.

Pidcock saw Davide Piganzoli take advantage of a numerical advantage for the Dutch team, with Jorgenson blocking the chasing group, just as he had in Montréal. As a result, Piganzoli held on to his lead for a few seconds, even though Pidcock made a strong comeback and finished second.

"I felt good today, even though the whole week was about recovering and getting back into the European rhythm," Pidcock said in a press release from his team. "The team went all out right from the start, and I felt good on the local circuit."

However, he just wasn't quite up to the task against a strong Visma | Lease a Bike team. “It’s a shame that in the end I just didn’t have the legs to catch Piganzoli on the final climb. I’m a little frustrated. Second place three times, second place three times,” he said, summing up his last three results in the Giro dell’Emilia.

Team director Gabriele Missaglia saw Pidcock get boxed in once again. “Visma | Lease a Bike’s numerical advantage was a key tactical factor in deciding the race. It’s disappointing, because Tom clearly had the legs. We were extremely close to the win, but races are sometimes decided by these dynamics.”